Hi all,
1) Context dependency That was a very interesting discussion on context dependency and recalling cards in front of the computer, but not in the real world etc. For the moment, I don't consider that a problem for myself. I'm learning Spanish vocabulary among other things, and I do find the same thing happening to me a little bit, but I consider it as a step in the learning process. Eventually I need to move away from the vocabulary and only have cards with complete sentences containing all of these words that I used to learn separately. And yes, more and more different sentences combining that vocabulary and grammar rules etc. I consider that I just need to move up to the next level in time. On the topic of sentences: I recently added the "idiomatic expressions" deck to my collection, so that's getting me started in that direction. I find that some of them need corrections, so once I've gone through all of them, I'll also add the inverse cards (English - Spanish) which is definitely going to up the stakes a little bit... I also found that a site called quizlet.com has a lot of Spanish flash card decks, including conjugations and complete sentences, which can be downloaded in tab delimited format. I hope some are good. 2) Confidence Mnemosyne has given me a major confidence boost. It turned out that many of the difficulties I had in life were due to a lazy memory, which I couldn't rely on. I work as a trainer, and I always found I was not nearly as good at processing information as I wanted to be. Additionally, each training session caused me great mental stress. Now, I split the training up into 5-7 blocks, each block into 5-7 subtopics and so on. That provides me with a number of lists that are small enough to put on a flashcard and memorise. But the greatest improvement is not really that, it's simply the confidence boost itself, after having successfully memorised a lot of stuff already. There's one principle I learned from Mnemosyne, that I'm now introducing into more and more areas of my life: try something quickly. When the result is less than perfect, be happy with it anyway, and try again tomorrow. When the result is perfect, be happy with it too, and do it again next week. I'm just moving on much more quickly than before. 3) Abusing Mnemosyne Perhaps somebody likes this: I also use a separate .mem for practicing music, in this case a book with 99 keyboard exercises. I just made 99 flashcards with only a number on them, and I practise whichever one Mnemosyne tells me to. If I quickly get the hang of it again, I grade it 4. If I can immediately play it smoothly, I grade it 5. If it really takes some effort to get into, it's a 3. I make sure I have to repeat 5-10 exercises each day, which takes me about 10-15 minutes. I let Mnemosyne worry about the rest. Really happy with the results! 4) Feature request I may have already requested this, but I would really like to see the distinction between - reviewing cards - repeating cards that I just failed in the review - learning new cards The grading has a different meaning. And my brain really wants to know if this is something I forgot, or something new. And, coming back to a previous discussion, perhaps a new idea. When we learn just-failed cards, they sometimes appear multiple times in a row, when there are almost no unlearned cards left. How about using some of tomorrow's scheduled cards to insert in between? But keep it visually clear: "This is a scheduled card for tomorrow. There are 4 more just-failed cards left for you to pass today." I figure we need an extra counter for the number of just-failed cards in any case. If you fail tomorrow's card, don't add it to the just-failed cards though, since that would keep you going forever. It will need separate treatment: can be brought up again if there are still some just-failed cards left to review. Otherwise, it needs to be put back into tomorrow's queue. If you pass tomorrow's card, great! One less to review tomorrow. </Saturday morning thoughts !-- Yes, I am feeling lonely today, but I'm also really interested in this stuff--> Wim -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "mnemosyne-proj-users" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/mnemosyne-proj-users?hl=en.
